1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and to a method for manufacturing the same, and here, in particular, to a device with pads enabling good contacting with lead wires.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, there is the tendency to shrink or to miniaturize components and electric circuits further and further, so that for example on a single wafer or substrate a multiplicity of components are manufactured in high density, which are subsequently diced for further use.
The advantage of this miniaturization consists in that on the one hand the room occupied by the components may be reduced in other components, and, which is also very substantial, a multiplicity of such components can be manufactured in a single substrate, so that the resources required for the manufacture are taken advantage of more and more optimally. For one substrate, now a multiplicity of components is obtained, so that by employment of the same amount of material, increased yield may be obtained, so that the overall costs for each individual component are reduced with regard to the substrate material used corresponding to the room occupied by the component.
One problem that is encountered with this progressive miniaturization consists in that also the available contact areas for the connection of the device become smaller as the device is shrinking. For example, the available contact area in such miniaturized devices does not permit sufficient mechanical strength for the connection to lead wires or other connection locations, so that a reduced connection reliability results, in particular when lead wires are used.
An example for the solution of these problems is described in the post-published German patent application DE 103 56 367 A, in which small components are introduced into a support element such that opposing pads thereof are arranged on an upper side and a lower side of the support, respectively, which are again covered with a conductive layer, so that an enlargement of the effective pad results. This procedure is advantageous for such components, in which the components have contact areas extending across the side faces thereof, so that in a vertical arrangement thereof the corresponding pads face the upper side and the lower side of the support in a recess of the support. This procedure for the enlargement of the contact pad, however, is not suited for components in which the contact areas are arranged on a common surface.
On the basis of FIG. 1, such a conventional component is described in greater detail, which is for example a sensor chip. This component includes a substrate 100, for example a ceramic substrate. On an upper surface 102 of the ceramic substrate 100, a metal layer 104, for example a platinum film, is formed. The sensor chip includes a first contact area 106 and a second contact area 108, between which a structured platinum film 110 is arranged, for example in meander-shaped manner. Contact reinforcements 112 and 114 of conductive material are each arranged on the contact areas 106 and 108. In the example shown in FIG. 1 of a conventional temperature measurement sensor, the measurement film 110 is protected by a glaze layer 116 arranged between the contact reinforcements 112 and 114.
As can be seen, the contact areas 112, 114 are relatively small as compared with the overall dimension of the element, and with increasing miniaturization of the overall element, here also the available contact area for connection to lead wires or the like is reduced, so that here the above-mentioned problems in connection with the quality of the terminal connection arise.